Men Are Only as Faithful as Their Options | Debunking a Popular Myth

Can men be faithful? Even in the midst of an avalanche of sexual attraction?

The Quote

In what has become one of his more popular shows, the comedian Chris Rock uttered one of his most popular quotes till date. With his characteristic trenchant humor, which always pack just enough punch to make it resonant, Chris Rock said that “Men are only as faithful as their options”

At that point what he said definitely rang true. So true it no doubt appeared to everyone present as one of those absolute statements that make so much sense only a fool would doubt it.

But is it really? Are men “only as faithful as their options?”

To answer this question we must first obtain a better understanding of the words themselves: Men, are only as faithful, as their options.

It’s definitely a fancy phrase. Elegant and catchy. And most importantly, one must admit, it has enough modicum of truth to it to give it just the needed amount of credence (which itself is needed to make it popular) but that doesnt really mean it’s “true”, does it?

I mean first we actually have to examine what the saying is “saying”. “Men are only as faithful as their options” means at the very least that as a man the more options you have, in terms of attracting the opposite sex or whichever one you’re attracted to, the more likely you are to cheat.

And of course in our world the degree of attraction we invoke is dependent upon quite a lot of social, economic, physiological and psychological factors; things like, perhaps, how rich you are, how pleasantly welcome your physical appearances are, how “smooth” your game is and etc. Which would mean, according to Chris Rock, that basically anyone who falls in the negative as regard to most of these parameters, and thus have “less options”, is less likely to cheat.

But again is this really the case?

Men Are Only as Faithful as Their Options – Another Alternative?

Another way to look at Chris Rock’s quote about men being only as faithful as their options is to take it as meaning basically that cheating is inherent in men, and the only things that has the chance to curb this tendency or limit it in any way, are the “options”. Which again, consequentially, would mean among other things that if you took away a man’s options he would not cheat, nor have the slightest urge to.

Again is this really the case?

Perhaps it may seem so at first. I mean when we look at it in the very broadest, very extreme sense, that is in the sense of a scenario where there are only two people left on the earth; two couples in a relationship.

Now in this case there are literally no options, and thus the man will not cheat; or rather can not cheat, and Chris Rock’s popular words becomes true — but this very unlikely very implausible scenario, I’m afraid, is the only instance in which that can ever be so.

Why, you ask? Well it’s simply because if tackling infidelity was ever strictly, or even most prominently, a matter of “options”, then it is nothing but an “all or nothing” scenario.

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Men Are Only as Faithful as Their Options – All or Nothing

You either take away all the available options or it doesn’t work. And the bad news for the quote is that you can’t. There will always be options. There will always be people around you. Which means, going by Chris Rock’s statement, that so long as there’s still something admirable about you, thereby giving you at least one window of options, you will always cheat.

But that isn’t the case; that isn’t the case simply because there’s absolutely no man alive who doesn’t have an “option”. And yet there is a tangible number of men who simply don’t cheat.

There are lots of men who has remained faithful throughout their relationships; a lot of which span a really long period of time. This, at the very least, suggests that being faithful is actually quite possible for a man, and that fidelity in a relationship is a phenomenon that goes deeper than having “options” or not.

Now, course, this leads to another question, if fidelity truly isn’t defined by “options”, what then determines whether a man would cheat on his partner or not?

And so first of all we consider the factors that may drive a man, or any other sex for that matter, to cheat in the first place. Off the top of anyone’s head we have things like lack of control, boredom, tepid love, chaotic and unhealthy relationship, lack of happiness, and so on.

And I’d like to tell you that the last three items on that list are much more important than taking away “options”. If you can choose to work on making your relationship a happy one, making it as healthy as possible, fostering love and happiness, I can assure you that the number of options your man has would pale compare to these beautiful things.

Conclusion

Cut out the incessant arguments, compliment your partner, foster positivity, great communication, and, yes, trust, and you won’t ever have to worry yourself to death about how many options your man has!

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